Pages

February 15, 2018

Pros and Cons of Switching to an Instagram Business Profile

Once a month I hold open Office Hours on Facebook Live to answer people's quick social media questions (for FREE). This month, I talked about the pros and cons of switching to an Instagram business profile. Think of this as a companion guide to the video.

Rejoice! You can schedule posts in Instagram if you're a business (and you use Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or SocialFlow). Can any business on Instagram schedule posts? No, only businesses with a business profile. What's a business profile? Should you switch to one? Glad you asked!

Fun factabout me: People pay me to help with their social media!

Because of that, I switched to a business profile. I get a lot of engagement on Instagram and I wanted to open the door to some of that engagement turning into business.

With a business profile you get:

a contact button

business industry category

clickable business address

analytics

ability to run ads

One very important note, you must have a Facebook business page to use an Instagram business profile.

Should you make the switch? Let's look at the pros and cons.

Pros:

If you're a restaurant or retailer, that clickable address is a huge pro.

Email? You love it! Can't get enough. See also: don't have a website.

The life-changing ability to schedule posts if you manage multiple accounts, or just don't want work on nights and weekends.

In-app analytics that show you things like demographics on your audience, times they're active in Instagram, and reach/engagement on your posts.

Ability to "boost" ($$$) your posts and reach people outside of your audience.

Cons:

There are no "real" (I'm using air quotes) cons to making the switch, but here's some food for thought.

A contact button? Please, you haven't answered an email since 2012.

You have a great website that people should visit and on that website is an FAQ that answers any question someone would email you about.

You don't have or want to share your physical address (raises hand).

You have other ways to pull your analytics.

Switching solely to see an increase in engagement or sales.

If you're looking to get more followers and increase engagement, switching to a business profile isn't necessarily the answer. Learn how to organically grow an audience and increase engagement by scheduling a one-on-one consultation.

What do you think? Did you make the switch? What's it been like so far?